1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein generally relate to an image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and a computer-readable recording medium having a program recorded therein for inhibiting the transmission (or transfer) of document data scanned by a scanner or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electrophotography-based printers have been widely used. The use of such printers makes it possible to easily make document copies. Especially, color multi-function peripherals can produce an extremely accurate copy that is hard to distinguish from the original. It thus becomes important to prevent forgery or illegal copying of sensitive documents.
In order to prevent forgery or the like of sensitive documents, various measures are put in place.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-121430 discloses an image processing apparatus provided with a background-pattern printing function that prints an inconspicuous pattern (e.g., letters such as “No Copying”) in the background on which an image of an original sensitive document is printed, so that this background pattern will conspicuously appear upon making a copy. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-184178 discloses an image forming apparatus that prints a barcode containing the information indicative of “no copy allowed” on part of an original document, so that the copying of this document is prevented when detecting this “no copy” indication upon scanning the original document containing the barcode.
The demand for security is on the increase not only with respect to data on paper media but also with respect to electronic data.
In order to meet such a demand, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-38371 describes a security policy for use in corporations, which prevents electronic data from being illegally accessed by restricting access to documents to be transmitted.
When the contents of sensitive electronic data need to be shared with a certain number of people, it may be more convenient and efficient to distribute printouts of this electronic data rather than to let the people see the contents on the display screen of a personal computer or the like.
In such a case, conventionally, a user needs to explicitly make such a print setting that a background pattern or barcode is printed on a printed sheet in addition to the contents of the document to prevent copying or the like. Such a print setting is made through manual operations. It is thus difficult to make sure that all the users make such print setting without exception. There may be a case in which the document is printed with neither a background pattern nor a barcode. In such a case, people who have received the printouts may copy the document or transmit (transfer) the document by use of fax, resulting in a situation in which the copies of the document is in the hands of an unspecified number of people. This may create a risk of information leakage.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a mechanism which can prevent the leakage of information by automatically adding a background pattern or barcode without user intervention when printing electronic data containing confidential contents.